Pipolo, Franco Castellano
Ci hai rotto Papà

THE REVIEW

Suppose you soon receive an invitation to participate in a talk show? 

Are you so sure you'll dodge the question about what the real values of life are? 

Obviously, each of you will have a personal opinion, but certainly friendship will be included in this "ranking."

A film that can clearly represent this value is undoubtedly the delightful "Ci hai rotto papà".

Who hasn't seen this film as a kid?

I think few... but certainly those kids who laughed at the adventures of the "Intoccabili" gang, years later, cannot help but remember it fondly. Because "Ci hai rotto Papà" is a little manifesto of the most carefree youth, who experiences passions and disappointments in a matter of minutes, who gets excited over a penalty scored in the yard or gets into small troubles for a smash that ends up on the grumpy neighbor's car. All with that boldness, with that courage and wonder typical of youth stepping into life

This charming comedy tells the story of a group of kids, the "Intoccabili" indeed, who live in the same building and have the goal of mocking the "grown-ups" in every way, seen as a common enemy to defeat.

Marco is the mastermind, who manages his crew in a rather undemocratic way (the elections for a new leader will be held "sometime never").

Then there’s Fabrizio "Karate Kid"; Paolo (milk), the doorman's son, and Zibbo (coffee), his best friend: the two share a great friendship that goes beyond wealth and social class.

The group is completed by the two brothers, Andrea (a very young Elio Germano) and Carletto, and Stefania, the only girl in the group, who studies at a convent school and is forced by her father to attend boring violin lessons. Their stories are more or less those of kids that age, albeit a bit exaggerated for comedic effect.

Everything is planned during meetings in an old cinema and interrupted by their anthem shouted at the top of their lungs during bike rides ("we are the intoccabili and you are busted, you call yourselves grown-ups but you wet your pants").

Their pranks, each funnier than the last, range from putting glue on toilet seats to prank tourists on stopovers, to gluing the boots of the stern colonel who punctures their ball, thus suspending courtyard matches.

And let no one try not to buy a scooter for Paolo's big brother, because a professor from the Alabama University warned you about the countless harmful effects of depriving the boy of the object of his desire!

There are also enterprises for noble purposes, like rescuing the cobbler's monkey destined for experiments and the tender and simple handling of first loves. Not to mention, Marco falls in love with an older student who tutors him and sacrifices his excellent mathematics grades for her, showing how at that age, to get something you desire, you're willing to do anything.

Certainly, it's not a movie that will write the history of cinema, but it surely wrote the story of those afternoons spent having fun with friends and emulating (or trying to) the delightful Intoccabili.

And the history of cinema is not written only with million-dollar special effects or groundbreaking camera movements: it's also written with simple films that remain within you.

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